IAndMyStory is a unique new concept that takes personalization to the next level. The company enables you to get personalized versions of books, where the storyline is modified and the characters in the book are assigned as per your custom order. To illustrate with an example, say that you want to order a personalized book for your son, who’s name is Vikram (hypothetical). Using IAndMyStory, you can place a custom order such that the names of the characters in the book use Vikram and his friends names. This definitely makes the book more engaging for the reader, especially for children.
The books have content and illustrations and the content is tailored to different children age groups. Books range from fairy tales to animal stories to space adventures. Their catalog is still fairly small, however I expect that to increase with time.
I think this is a brilliant idea that leverages personalization as their USP.
What’s your take about this service ?
So you mean they are gonna print every single copy individually? Will that be financially liable? AFAIK, book printers print hundreds of copies at a time.
rohan,
valid point that had occurred to me — but I’m pretty sure that they must have accounted the expected volume into the cost of the books.
I’m not too familiar with commercial printing technology to take a guess on how expensive it would be to customize these names/characters.
great point, however.
I am not sure how IAndMyStory.com works this out, but stickiestory.com has a standard set of books printed alongwith placeholders for character photos. Once you submit the photos, they print it out separately with names and you can stick in the picture book to complete the story.
This keeps cost variance to the minimum.
Here’s a business idea which makes me feel shucks-why-didn’t-I-think-of-that! Not entirely original but fantastic adoption of the concept. Hoochymail uses a similar concept to create personalized erotic fiction.
hoochymail — I’m sold on the name itself
Dear Pranav,
Hats off to the people who conceptualized & implemented this idea. In these days of Satellite TV & Internet, the kids are not ready to get into the habit of reading books. This type of personalized story books will be welcomed by parents. So they won’t mind paying a few rupees extra.
I find this idea similar to the role playing game.
Regarding viability, there is already self publishing websites (like lulu.com) where authors can publish their books & copies will be printed only when a customer orders their book. So IAndMyStory’s idea is very much viable. But only question is promoting this concept amidst parents who may be affluent, but not tech/internet savvy.
Thank You
With Regards
Santhanam
Indeed this is awesome and I’m gonna write about it soon.
But @Santhanam, I got to differ.
Internet is an awesome place to develop reading. I now write for blogs. This was made possible only because I spent time online and read so much. Reading never dies. Only the medium evolves.
Thank You.
Internet is indeed a great place to get knowledge. But its easy to cross over into stuff that is inappropriate for kids as well.
Besides, I think parents still find it a great experience to read a book to a kid.
Idea – good
Viable – As Rohan pointed out, there will be a huge price difference between cost for a “regular” book vs “customized” book. Bulk printing is way cheaper. But then custom T-shirt, mugs are also printed and are profitable businesses.
However, i think i still find more info